Tokyo Douglas vs Rocky Marciano

If we are talking about the "Tokyo" Douglas and ONLY the "Tokyo" Douglas, then I will pick "Tokyo" Douglas to win this.. Any other version probably loses.. But on that night James was fit, motivated and armed with a good game plan to beat a man of that style. I don't think Tyson was at his best for reasons that I have argued many time before.. But even Tyson at about 75-80% was not far off from Marciano at 90-100%. Mike had more power. About 30 lbs in weight over Rocky.. Faster hands.. And was more accustomed to dealing with bigger men... So if "Tokyo Douglas could beat even that version of Mike, his chances against Marciano are pretty solid.. James was 6'4", 230 lbs and still only 29 years of age ( another dissimilarity to Rocky's best opponents. ) He had a good combination of youth, conditioning, motivation, the right style and a good corner.. He also had experience as he had been rated for some time and shared the ring with several contenders... Douglas's jab, reach, uppercut and power would all be problems.. Someone mentioned that he never went 15 rounds, but he wasn't totally unaccustomed to going past the mid point of a fight either and as the larger man, wouldn't have to work nearly as hard as his smaller counterpart.. Legacy wise Marciano makes top 10 while Douglas may not even be top 40. But head to head matchups and legacy comparisons are two different animals.

 

Douglas might have been ranked #7 by the ring, but he was actually ranked #2 buy the IBF and somewhere between 5-7 by both the WBC and WBA from memory for whatever thats worth.. I always take ratings with a grain of salt though. Weather you like magazine ratings or those posted by sanctioning bodies, both have made questionable calls in the past in my eyes.

 

Rocky Marciano's sole offense in head to head match ups, is not weighing more than a certain amount.

Hard to fault him outside that!

 

That and his best opponents were on the tale end of their careers, with lots of mileage, not particularly big in size themselves, in some cases non indigenous to the heavyweight division and still gave him plenty of trouble and even some close calls. Had Marciano vs Walcott been scheduled for 12 he might very well have lost that fight, unless you choose to take the position that Rocky would have just simply turned up the heat earlier, but I'm not so sure its that simple. Guys like Walcott and Charles had the tools to trouble him and if we're honest weren't even prime when they did it.

 

The reality is that Buster had eight months off, eight months of celebrating (and/or eight months of despair intermixed), and came into the fight 15 lbs overweight. He was beaten before the bell even rang. He didn't prepare like a champion and so he couldn't show up at all when faced with a "loaded" Holyfield.

 

Exactly... And the title of the thread clearly says " Tokyo" Douglas. Not Las Vegas Douglas..

 

That's right, I can't rule out the magnificence of the Tokyo performance and yet the proven exceptionallity of Rocky has,to count for something.

 

Two different weight classes. Douglas beats him up.

 

It's the same thing when I keep pitting Benny Leonard against Jake LaMotta… The Injustice!

 

This

 

This is a huge factor though. Tokyo only beat Tyson because he maintained that pace. He was a big man and there is no way he could have sustained that heat. Buster needed to hit Tyson as often as he did to keep him off then gain that foothold on the fight. Had he sacrificed ten punches a round in order to last the further rounds the level of domination required disappears.

Pace is a big deal for big men. This is why modern super heavyweights fight the way they do. Jab and grab. Nobody is beating an all timer with jab and grab. Douglas wasn't even sure of himself the first time he ventured past 10 against Tucker. The psychological barrier it presented made him crumble. Without the same level of sustained domination Douglas will be required to be strong enough to physically and psychologically venture past 11 rounds. The Tucker fight is proof enough that this is a problem.